Re: "...some voice commands may be transmitted..

It's for those people who dream of living in a Star Trek universe...

Quite a few people still say "Oh, I want to live on the Enterprise, just like Captain Picard - how cool would that be!!!" - yet few people realise that the Enterprise computer system tracks every movement on board, listens to every conversation, and probably even tracks you via CCTV. And with the right level of access, the computer also will tell authorised persons all it observed... so no quick date with Counselor Troy in her quarter, Riker will just say "Who visited Troys quarter in the last 48 hours and went into the bedroom" ;-)

Re: @jnievele

Those TVs are deliberately sold with "speech recognition" as one of the selling points. So even the dumbest customer should be aware that they listen to spoken words - because that's what Speech Recognition IS.

If you don't want a TV with voice recognition, don't buy one. If you don't want a camera built in, don't buy a telly with a camera (but don't complain if it can't do Skype...)

Seriously, that's just FUD again - Siri for example does exactly the same, Google Now listens all the time for you to say "OK Google", Windows 10 and Windows Mobile pine for the magic "Hey Cortana", the PS4 has voice commands, so does the new XBox, Amazon even sells a product that does nothing BUT listening... if you don't want this, don't buy such a product, but don't go complaining that it does what you bought it for.

Same here, 16GB ordered (from Germany) within the first 2 or 3 minutes. Play first said 1-2 weeks, order confirmation said 3-5 business days, and today I got the tracking code for the parcel which is now in the hands of DHL :-)

4-sided, Rounded corners...

Re: For those w/o time in the military:

Actually, the reason why the Lower is serialised is because this part (along with some others) determines wether an AR-15 can fire full-auto or not.

Oh, and good luck finding somebody skilled enough in metalwork to build you a working (and precise) barrel. Only a handfull of companies nowadays do that, most gun companies buy barrels from those few, as barrel making is a very complicated piece of work and requires special machinery not readily available....

No captcha

I didn't get a captcha when I installed it - it was probably because the account used for testing had too many bad logons or something like this, it would have asked for a Captcha even when logging in via a desktop PC.

Yes and no

He's got himself to blame for his actual loss, but Bitcoin is undermining the trust into their system with comments like "He really just lost the amount he spent in Bitcoins, he just lost 1000$"

If you change Euros into Dollars, the Dollar rises like mad (Well, this IS hypothetical), and you end up with 10 times the original amount of money - but it gets stolen before you convert it back, you'd be a bit pissed off if the police said "You only lost the money you originally exchanged into Dollars, no worries", wouldn't you?

If Bitcoin is money, it ALWAYS has its current worth (hence the name "Currency"), not the worth it had when you got it in exchange for something else.

Devalued

Congrats... Bitcoin just devalued your money.

With his Statement Mr. Schneider made clear that whatever money you put into Bitcoin should be considered lost - if you can convert it back to real currency, lucky for you, but you're not supposed to expect anything from Bitcoin.

Your hard-earned cash is at the mercy of Bitcoin and whatever exchanges will be left by the time you want to get your money back. If Bitcoin just comes out and says "Hey, it was a nice test, but we'll just shut down everything now" you'll end up having lost all your money with nobody to appeal to.

Learn the terminology!

Sorry Lewis, but you know nothing about military air tactics.

Yes, the RAF has no experienced fighter pilots. They have barely enough money to keep them on the sad training level they currently have, let alone improving their skills, and the same is true of most western airforces, USAF included (they rely on their fancy stealth jets and BVR tactics, too).

Also, the "lamentable" Tornado F3 wasn't lamentable at all - it worked pretty well in the role it was designed for. Don't blame the aircraft if the owner suddenly decides he needs something else. When you buy a Rolls-Royce you can't complain it doesn't drive like a Ferrari, can you?

The F3 was designed as an INTERCEPTOR, not a fighter. That's quite a big difference - the role of the F3 was to kill inbound Soviet heavy bombers over the North Sea and North Atlantic, dogfighting was never a major design feature.

Submarine tactics...

Sorry to burst your bubble, but even though AIP- and Diesel-Electric subs are much slower than warships or modern cargo ships while submerged, the same is true of pretty much EVERY submarine, including nuclear ones. Submarines have to stay quiet (unless they want to get noticed by the escorts), therefore even nuclear submarines don't run around with more than 20 knots. In reality, they'll do 10-15kts, or even slower if they want to be extra-quiet.

Submarines don't RACE surface ships - they detect them from a large distance and try to go to a position where they can ambush them.

As for the "AIP subs can be easily killed by 1st world navies" - there's plenty of periscope pictures of US carriers done even by DE-subs. On electric drive (which with AIP means... all the time), such a submarine is a lot quieter than a nuclear submarine. It's also a lot smaller, and can go closer to the coast or sneak into an enemy harbour (U47, anyone?), something you wouldn't dare with a Virginia- or Trafalgar-class ;-)

Rest of the best?

Actually, the Green Berets ARE among the top tier troops - they just have a different mission than for example Delta Force.

Their task is, among other things, to spend a long time behind enemy lines, training resistance fighters, and stuff like that... which of course means it's not really such a good idea to give hightech kit to them - where will they get new batteries?

The Green Berets are for example language specialists, train people on using explosives, etc. etc. etc. - all things where the landwarrior gear isn't actually needed.

Height adjustment

Old stuff

A similar system (but based on microphones, and not compatible with HL2) is available already via www.aircine.de - basically you shoot at a video with anything from an Airsoft gun to a heavy machinegun, and the microphones in the corners detect which point you've hit.

Requires the blackbox from Aircine, a laptop, a beamer, and a large framed screen.